Witch of Hemwick

Witch of Hemwick is a
Boss in Bloodborne. It is a special variation of the
Eye Collector.

"'In the outskirts of Yharnam, the city of gravekeeper witches carved by the sunlight, Hemwick. In its depths, an old, gigantic structure and one Old lady lies in wait. Holding suspicious rituals in the deepest of the night, for that very purpose it is said that she gathers the eyeballs of the living. In the city where unwanted corpses would be gathered and disposed of, her outfit might just be befitting of one such place."

Witch of Hemwick Information

After defeating her a small cellar room in her abode can also be entered, where the Rune Workshop Tool is located on a corpse.

The two witches can be told apart based on which one attacks you if you come close enough in front of them. The witch that attacks you upon approach is the one who's health bar is visible. The one who's health bar is not visible will not attack you. (Tested in phase one, unconfirmed when pushed into next phase).

During Co-op the co-operator (summoned player) cannot see the witches unless the Beckoner (host) is near them. You can see the effects and still attack them, though.

Combat Information

There are 2 witches, the 2nd witch's HP bar doesn't show up until you kill first one. You can deal damage to the second witch even though the HP bar isn't on screen.

Keep your eyes open for reddish glow in the room, that's usually where the witch is. Keep running around the arena, sometimes when you pass near her she will turn visible and open to attacks.

The witches can revive each other. If you take too long to kill the second witch it will revive the first one with 20% of its health. It may be best to search for and deal some damage to the second witch before finishing off the first one otherwise the second half of the fight might be harder. The witch starts casting more spells during the second half of the fight.

Mad Ones will spawn during the fight. The first one spawns when you enter, and then more will spawn after you have dealt some damage to the witches.

You can ignore the Stalkers almost entirely and just search for the Witch. Keep hitting her until she drops below 50% health.

Very easy to back-stab dealing massive damage to the witch. After hitting the witch into a visceral able state if you wait about 1 second and charge up another backstab dealing more damage and allowing for a visceral attack still.

Strong to bolt.

Attack Name

Attack Description & Counter

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Strategy 1 (Heavy/Transformed weapon and dashing)

This can be both a difficult and irritatingly elongated battle due to the witches invisibility and ressurecting abilities. This is the best strategy I've found that also applies to NG+. equip a heavy weapon such as Kirkhammer or Ludwig's Holy Blade, if you don't have a heavy weapon then the transformed version of what you have will work. When you enter the room ignore the stalker that is summoned by the witch (recommended.) The witches tend to gravitate towards 6 specific locations in the room; on both sides of wooden ramp in middle of the room and the left and right corners of the far north and south sides of the room. (Rarely will they be in middle.) With that in mind immediately start sprinting and start making laps around the room, staying close to the wall, and rotate camera as you sprint so you can see most of the room while your moving.

A great way to spot them also is to roll or attack the barrels and breakable objects and when a witch walks by the debris you will see the pieces of debris move. Sprinting around raises chance that you will come into close proximity to invisible witches, and they will become visible as a result. As soon as you see one use a charge attack then quickly spam R1 with remaining stamina to maximize damage as they will quickly dissapear after taking damage. As mentioned above it can help to ensure you damage both witches equally to avoid repeated resurrections. Repeat the steps above; sprint laps, rotate camera to ensure you spot them quickly when they appear, glow red, or run into debris from broken objects. Charge attack, spam R1, repeat.

Strategy 2

Using some of the combat information given above, and using Kirkhammer, this worked pretty well. 1st ignore stalkers. You can get 2 fully charged R2 attacks and a backstab (in hammer form) before the witch vanishes. repeat until witch's health bar is is at a point you can kill it with just one of the combos i just mentioned. At this point you have to avoid damaging the witch with the visible health bar, and concentrate on the witch with the invisible health bar.
To do this, once a witch appears get in melee range and wait a few seconds. If the witch begins to attack it is the one you want to avoid hitting at this time. Just avoid and wait for it to disappear. Conversely if the witch does NOT attack, start hammering. Now repeat until invisible health bar witch is dead then you can finish off the other with one combo before it has a chance to heal the dead one.

Depending on your damage output this shouldnt take long. was easy mode in NG+ with Kirkhammer +10 total AR 652. good luck.

Videos

Notes & Trivia

She propably comes from the Unseen Village as a few of her kin can be found there (this is supported by the fact that there are two Witches of Hemwick). This theory is supported by the removed eyeballs too for the description of the item suggests that the victim could be still alive in the time of the removal.